Configuring Virtual Switch VLAN Tagging (VST) mode on a vNetwork Distributed Switch

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

This article describes the concept and configuration of VST mode on dvPortGroup.

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 
VMware vCenter Server

Resolution

Note: For additional information on dvPortGroup configuration, see vNetwork Distributed PortGroup (dvPortGroup) configuration.

 

Set the physical port connection between ESX and physical switch to TRUNK mode. ESX only supports IEEE 802.1Q (dot1q) trunking.

 

VLAN configuration is required on ESX side. Define ESX VLANs on the physical switch. Set ESX dvPortgroup to belong to a certain VLAN ID.

Caution: Native VLAN ID on ESX VST Mode is not supported. Do not assign a VLAN to a portgroup that is the same as the native VLAN ID of the physical switch.
Native VLAN packets are not tagged with VLAN ID on the out going traffic toward ESX host. Therefore, if ESX is set VST mode, it drops the packets that are lacking a VLAN tag.

 

To configure VST on dvPortGroup:

1. In vCenter, go to Home > Inventory > Networking.
2. Right-click dvPortGroup and click Edit Settings.
3. Under dvPortGroup > Settings > VLAN > Policies, set the VLAN type to VLAN.
4. Select a VLAN ID between 1- 4094
   
   Note: Do not use VLAN ID 4095.
   
   
5. Click OK.

Note: Distributed Switch portgroups can only be configured from the vSphere Client or vSphere Web Client. It is not possible to configure vDS portgroup VLANs from the ESX/ESXi command line interface.

Additional Information

For additional information and physical switch sample configuration, see Sample configuration of virtual switch VLAN tagging (VST Mode).

vNetwork Distributed Switch 上での仮想スイッチ VLAN タギング (VST) モードの構成